A progressive voice from the Carolinas, featuring views, news, and dialogue that the corporate media doesn't. In the Mountains of Western North Carolina, Mills River is a rural community about 20 minutes from Asheville.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Happy Groundhog Day!

MORE WINTER!!! Noooooooo......

At least that's Phil's verdict this morning. But based on how this winter has gone so far, that was pretty much my prediction anyway, even without the prognosticating talents of our fuzzy friend.

From MSNBC:PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. - The world's most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, emerged before chilly revelers in western Pennsylvania on Tuesday to see his shadow, a sign his handlers say means winter will last another six weeks.

Some 12,000 people gathered before dawn to await his weather forecast. They came from as far as Chile and the Netherlands, braving a chilly 18 degrees Fahrenheit to see the more than century-old ritual.

Bill Deeley, president of the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club — and reputedly the only person in the world who can speak "groundhogese" — declared that Phil had "seen his shadow" as he has about 90 percent of the time.

“In the councils of government we must guard against
the acquisition of power, whether sought or unsought,
by the military industrial complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties and democratic processes.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower
from his final address to the nation
January 17, 1961

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.
--Thomas Jefferson